"That is happiness; to be disolved into something complete and great. When it comes to one, it comes as naturally as sleep." - Willa Cather

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Monday, 12 November 2012

Sub 3:00, the coach, the plan

I'm not the type of person who takes the time to look back and appreciate achievements. I'm always immediately on to the next thing. Yet I found myself saying out loud "I have run 7 PRs in 5 distances in 2 months". And it was entirely true. So something went right. I just can't figure out what. Yet it still didn't go as well as I wanted.

My biggest goal: the marathon, was run on an injured leg, in terrible weather and I got lost. But it was a good season, yet I know I can do a lot better if I stop doing whatever I feel like and train exactly right for exactly a marathon. (as Bikram would say "exactly head to exactly knee" - sorry).

I need a goal. It did not take me long to figure out that would be a sub 3 hour marathon. But how will I accomplish this? (I have to admit I have never run a book about running training and I have never run according to any sort of plan besides the (often good) suggestions of my husband.).

I skipped over all of the available reading material and lept to one of the most well-known coaches of elite runners and triathletes in Denmark: Ole Stougaard. Here is the coaching company (Multitesta) he owns. I asked him two years ago if he would coach me and he said no. This time he said yes. Maybe it was because I had better running times. Or maybe it was my specific goal. I was beyond thrilled when he said yes. Not only because I think he will make me faster but because I can write about it here. And because maybe it will help me better understand running and physiology and how to become a coach myself. I sent him my training schedule from the last two weeks:

Now he knows me :). After a few more emails, he said based on the 40:06 10k two days after a marathon, he predicts I have the potential to run a 2:50 marathon. This was a bit of a shocker. It immediately made me think - well then what is SR's potential??!! And so many other readers of this blog??

So what is the plan exactly? Well, I don't know. I have a 6 hour and 100k race coming up first as part of my "off season". He's going to help me train for the 100k in January, but then all focus goes to the marathon. I had indicated I was interested in becoming a faster cyclist as well, but he says I need to focus on running all spring to make my dream become a reality.

In other news:

The knot in my calf is not entirely gone. And after all of the yoga and stretching I've done, I've now stretched that leg so much that it appears a lot longer (it's the hip that is pulled out of alignment, though). I've gotten myself into a fine mess. But the initial insult was running so many miles in minimal trail shoes on roads. To mitigate this, I'm trying these Hokas. They just arrived in the mail today from La France. They are extremely comfortable and make me as tall as SR.

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Good thing our apartment is full of gleaming white backgrounds for perfect pictures.

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Ideal racing weight

So happy to be back down to 105-106 lbs. Exactly where I want to be. It took tons of running miles and lots of salad with eggs and fish, but I did it! As Christian said "Mom, you like salad and Dad likes food." As the weight went down, interval times improved accordingly. A woman at the pool called me "spinkel" today and it immediately became my favorite Danish adjective.

Diet

Still eating gluten free and never ever ever wanting to go back. Went to get tested and there was over an hour wait at the lab. Free health care is not always fast health care. I'll go back another day.

Bikram Yoga Study

Wow. Everything is falling into place. We have the world's leading expert from Fort Collins, CO in as a co-investigator in our project and the studio here is making wonderful offers to help our target patient group. After years of wanting to study running in pregnancy and it just never coming together, I can't help but feeling this new project is somehow my destiny. More later of course.

Proof that I am a mom

People who read this blog probably wonder why I write about myself all the time and not my kids. Well, you'd probably lose interest fast. Moms are experts at bragging about their extremely talented kids.

But just so you know that I am indeed a mom and have those exact same feelings of pride and joy when I see my little boys accomplish something, I am going to subject you to ... momism.

What I found on the counter when I got back from my run. I didn't expect Christian would do this at 4 ½, but for all I know he should have been doing this at 3½. The most important part is he LOVES writing now!

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Christian ran his first kid race. 3.3 km.

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He had such a great time and I was beaming with pride!!! Oh, my boy loves to run. Time? about 37 minutes for 3.3km. This must give a marathon potential of sub 7 hours!

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Dandayamana-Bibhaktapada-Paschimolthanasana

Questions of the day:

1. Which is healthier: cheese or chocolate?

2. Training for which running distance gives the best female body?

3. What color is the number 5? (don't say black because that is the color of this font!, thank you)

It is amazing the difference gluten free makes for some people, I first started GF 4 years ago and have gone back to gluten a few times every time it is worse on me and only reinforces why I will stay GF :) Sure you already know this but the testing will not be accurate if you are already GF, so consider is it worth a "real" answer to go back on gluten?

2) Hmmm, well I'm going to guess you mean elite athletes? Because I pretty much look the same regardless of what distance I'm training for. I'd have to say the "mid distances". 2 mile, 5K, and 10K. They don't look as emaciated as marathoners, and they're slightly less muscular than the sprinters. Sort of in the middle.

3) I'm an engineer. I don't what it means to associate a color with a number...really I'm having trouble with this. Are you making a reference to Grapheme? I sort of wish I had that. It would make seeing patterns in numbers and equations so much more intuitive...

For the longest time I've been saying you (and a handful of others I know) could be much faster if you'd only take training and racing more seriously. I'm sure somewhere I said you should be running well under 3:00 for the marathon (and SR about 2:35).

Good luck with the coach!

1) Depends upon the types of cheese and chocolate. Cocoa powder wins - all antioxidants, minerals and healthy fats.

2) 1500/5000m gives the healthiest looking bodies. I have a weakness for short skinny women, so I tend to chase marathoners.

3) Green. I thought once I might have synesthesia, but the colors I associate with numbers are exactly the colors of a magnetic number set I had as a child. What does Daniel Tammet say?

I can't believe how we basically all agree about the female running body. My response would be anywhere from 400 meter to 5k as well.

If chocolate is healthier than cheese, shouldn't we all be eating chocolate sandwiches? Seriously. And chocolate pizza? Gluten free or course.

For me 5 has always been red. Steve just because you associate it with the colors of something from your childhood doesn't mean you don't have synesthesia! I think most of us have it to a certain degree (okay, maybe engineers like Katie are very talented at supressing it!). But Steve, that question was for you. I loved Born on a Blue Day. Thanks for the recommendation :).

I lovelovelove the pic of the Lorax with his hand on his chest after his race. He looks like a wise, old man who just went on an invigorating walk in the hills. "My, what a wonderful journey that was!"

Also, I can't wait to see what happens to you now that you are to be coached!

I suppose chocolate is healthier. But I may be saying that only because it is the one food, other than coffee, that I can't see myself ever giving up.

There are so many beautiful female bodies... I suppose the shorter distances tend to build stronger legs, whereas longer distances may require leaner builds? I think any woman that loves her body is gorgeous.

Totally agree with "Running with MPT"! I recently had a conversion with a nutritionist who happens to be married with an elite 1500m runner and the athletes are encourages to gain 5-10% of their body weight off-season. If not they risk metabolic damage that can be dramatic. In another post you mentioned a marathones who needs to add only a handful of nuts while competing in several marathons in a row. This actually isn´t an intelligent adaptive mechanism of the body it points to a large drop in metabolic function. If this woman stops running that many miles and eats like a normal person (as opposed to restrictive) she will gain a disproportional amount of weight and will encounter increasing difficulties to lose it. Elite runners can be that lean (not only skinny, they have low body fat while many recreational marathonners are skinny fat, low weight, no muscle, flab all over) because they allow themselves to be heavier most of they year!

Hello from Rude Skov

Photo by Stine Sophie Winckel

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My name is Tracy. I am a physician scientist from the USA, living with my husband and two young boys in Denmark. I work as a post-doc fellow at Næstved Hospital. I have a scientific interest in vision loss, vision loss during exercise, exercise, running during pregnancy, MAF training as well as nutrition and health for athletes. I also have a love for music, physics, statistics, cycling, yoga, cross-country skiing, bla bla bal.

I was a member of Team USA at the IAU World Championships in Ultra Trail Running in 2013 in Wales. I am now training to run with Team Denmark at the IAU World Championships in Annency, France in May 2015.